Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns was going to pressure Tashkent to allow an international investigation into the Andijan protests, which human rights groups and three US senators who met with eyewitnesses said killed about 500 people. Burns was also going to warn the government, one of the most authoritarian in the Islamic world, to open up politically -- or risk the kind of upheavals witnessed recently in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, US officials said.

Karimov has balked at an international probe. As US pressure mounted, he cut off US night flights and some cargo flights, forcing Washington to move search-and-rescue operations and some cargo flights to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan.

US evicted from Uzbek air base
Military used hub for key missions in Afghanistan
By Washington Post  |  July 31, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Uzbekistan has formally evicted the United States from a military base that has served as a hub for combat and humanitarian missions to Afghanistan since shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Pentagon and State Department officials say.

In a highly unusual move, the notice of eviction from Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, known as K2, was delivered Friday by a courier from the Uzbek Foreign Ministry to the US Embassy in Tashkent, said a senior US administration official involved in Central Asia policy. The message did not give a reason. Uzbekistan will give the United States 180 days to move aircraft, personnel, and equipment, US officials said.

If Uzbekistan follows through, as Washington expects, the United States will face several logistical problems for its operations in Afghanistan. Scores of flights have used K2 monthly. It has been a landing base to transfer humanitarian goods that then are taken by road into northern Afghanistan -- with no alternative for a region difficult to reach in the winter. K2 is also a refueling base with a runway long enough for large military aircraft. The alternative is much costlier midair refueling.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld returned last week from Central Asia, where he won assurances from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the United States can use its bases for operations in Afghanistan. US forces use Tajikistan for emergency landings and occasional refueling, but it lacks good roads into Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan does not border Afghanistan.

''We always think ahead. We'll be fine," Rumsfeld said recently when asked how the United States would cope with losing the base in Uzbekistan.